Current image "flashes" on content refresh

Bug #341116 reported by Ken Ellefson
4
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Xibo
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned
1.0
Fix Released
Low
Dan Garner
1.1
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

When a client is connected and displaying a series of scheduled images, polling for new content (if there is new) will cause the current image to rapidly flash on the screen while the client is downloading the new content. This is from a quick test I did yesterday, client was a clean XP SP3 install on an Intel D845GRG board, P4 2.4GHz, 256MB RAM, onboard video. Since I don't know where else to tell you, this software is GREAT, exactly what I have been looking for! I plan to implement this here immediately, once I have done some additional testing. Will you have a forum available soon for community discussion or feature suggestions?

Revision history for this message
Alex Harrington (alexharrington) wrote :

Hi

I'm glad you like Xibo :D

What update interval do you have set on the client - I think the default is 900 seconds.

When you say it flashes, could you describe the flashing a bit more - eg does it alternate between two pictures, the current picture and the desktop wallpaper etc.

Currently the client will "reset" its playlist of items when new content is scheduled, but it will only do that once per "update" from the server. I'm wondering if you have a layout with short-duration images and have a very short update interval set on the client if this would make it appear to flicker.

We're working really hard on the software itself at the moment. There's only 2 of us, and we both have full time jobs so time is not as plentiful as we would both like. Things like forums and a proper wiki will come in time. For now, we ask people to put general questions in the "Answers" section of Launchpad, and bugs here.

Cheers

Alex

Revision history for this message
Alex Harrington (alexharrington) wrote :

Oh, and you're welcome to log feature suggestions in the Blueprints section.

Cheers

Alex

Changed in xibo:
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Ken Ellefson (kellefson-techcampus) wrote :

Hello,

Thanks for the prompt reply! I have a series of four images, set to 30 seconds each. For testing I lowered the interval to 60 seconds. The flickering was between the background color (black) and the same image that was currently displaying. Now that I think about it, if the images are 30 seconds and the refresh is 60, it's bound to happen that a refresh will occur at the same time as a new image is loading. Is that likely to be the problem? Maybe a 'screen mute' while a refresh is in progress, if the user so chooses? Maybe that's not the right way to look at it though, I'll let you decide how to handle it. If you need me to try anything else, I would be happy to, just let me know.

Revision history for this message
Alex Harrington (alexharrington) wrote :

Hi

OK - that sounds simple enough for me to recreate.

We'll setup the same way and see if it's reproducible.

Cheers

Alex

Revision history for this message
Dan Garner (dangarner) wrote :

Hi there... Glad you like Xibo!

I have been looking into this problem and just wanted to make sure I have definitely understood.

To recreate I have done the following:
 - Created a layout and assigned 4 photos to it
 - Scheduled the layout to play on my test client
 - Started up the test client

There was a short delay before the client switched from the splash screen and then it started cycling through the images without any flicker. Does it sound like I have done anything different to you?

I wonder - does the same behaviour occur if the client collection interval is set to a value higher than 60 seconds?

The reason I ask this is that unless something is going wrong with the client getting media from the server it should only do so once each time the media changes.

Cheers

Revision history for this message
Ken Ellefson (kellefson-techcampus) wrote :

Hi,

This only happens if there is new media to load when the client refreshes. I had started with two images, let the client start, then I added two more, when the client refreshed is when the problem came up. I will try to increase the refresh interval, but I have a feeling that it will happen regardless if the client is loading new content. I will also install some additional RAM in the client, perhaps the background refresh consumes more resources than I have available.

Revision history for this message
Alex Harrington (alexharrington) wrote :

Hi Tek1979

Did you have any joy with fixing this? Is it still a problem?

Cheers

Alex

Changed in xibo:
assignee: nobody → Dan Garner (dangarner)
importance: Undecided → Low
milestone: none → 1.0.3
status: Incomplete → Fix Committed
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